When two of the world’s largest software companies- each of which has built its success atop proprietary technologies–begin to adopt the open source philosophy in a largely public way, that’s when you know that open source software truly is the future.

Secondly, developers are held more accountable for their code. In a truly open source program, anyone can browse through the program’s code whenever they want, which means the developer can’t hide malware within or do shady things with your data.

The end result is that both products are always improving, and that’s nothing but good news for users like you and me. So, where can you find awesome open source programs that are compatible with Windows? Let’s find out.

Note: Avoid using SourceForge! Not long ago, it came to light that SourceForge has been hijacking abandoned projects and bundling their installer files with malware. To save yourself any headache, we recommend that you ignore SourceForge altogether.

Open Source Windows is a curated list of the best open source programs available to Windows users. It’s not an exhaustive list by any means, but it’s a great starting point that highlights several high-quality gems.

You’ve probably heard of most of the included programs (e.g. Thunderbird, VLC, and Audacity) but there are some lesser-known ones that might surprise you (e.g. Miro, PeaZip, and SkipScreen). It’s worth a look, and make sure to visit its sister site, Best Privacy Tools.

Like Open Source Windows, Open Source Software Directory is a light resource for finding non-proprietary programs. Its database has a little over 1,000 programs in it, so the selection isn’t trivial (but falls short of some other websites, which we mention below).

You can filter by platform, by category, and by audience, making it straightforward to use. The minimalistic design makes it easy to navigate as well.

AlternativeTo is my absolute favorite website when searching out new software to use. It’s community-driven and community-maintained, so as far as comprehensive software coverage is concerned, there’s no better site out there.

While it isn’t solely focused on open source, AlternativeTo allows you to filter by platform (e.g. Windows) and by license (e.g. open source), resulting in approximately 4,600 open source programs available for Windows. These are further divided into categories like Office, Games, Audio, Backup, etc.

But the best way to use this site is to search for a particular program, then use the filters to find alternatives to that program. One of the best websites on the Internet, without a doubt.

Like OSAlt, OStatic is a site that’s useful for finding open source alternatives to otherwise proprietary programs, but OStatic is more than that. It’s a community of folks who believe in the open source philosophy.

Yes, you can search through OStatic’s directory of nearly 120,000 open source programs that can be filtered by category (e.g. Entertainment), by audience (e.g. developers), or even by a specific license (e.g. BSD license), but the real benefit is that you aren’t alone here.

OStatic has an actively maintained blog where users can discuss developments in the open source world. In terms of that, I don’t know if there’s a more up-to-date resource than this.

Open Source Is Viable on Windows

For a while, the common belief was that open source software simply couldn’t match the quality and robustness of proprietary products — and for a while, that may have been true. But these days, it’s no more than a baseless myth.

Don’t be afraid or reluctant to use open source programs on Windows (as long as the programs themselves are worth using). If you need a starting point for quality programs, check out our Best Windows SoftwareThe Best Windows SoftwareThe Best Windows SoftwareWindows is swimming in a sea of free applications. Which ones can you trust and which ones are the best? If you're unsure or need to solve a specific task, consult this list.Read More list.

How do you feel about the interplay between open source and Windows? Where do you go to find new open source gems? Share your thoughts and tips with us in the comments!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Malcolm Duff

October 29, 2016 at 5:02 pm

I find it difficult to distinguish statements of fact from opinions or simply unintended falsehoods in your writing. For example;
"GIMP, Libre Writer, and Blender are all completely free to download". No they are not. Absolutely false. Unless you can recommend a monetary, obligation and responsibility "free" ISP. Can you? No. Thought not. So we all pay - in one "coin" or another - for that "free" GIMP don't we? We pay the ISP - or some other person, company, organisation does pay the ISP. Not free. Sure, you meant something else, didn't you? Well, write what you mean, it makes things easier for the reader.
We won't go into an ISP that allows complete "freedom" to download anything to wherever you are from anywhere. Not usually the ISP's fault, admittedly but another pointer to the pointlessness of the word "free" in the context of software.

The word "free" is the bane of Open Source Software. It has widely different meanings to widely different people, cultures, countries, demographics etc. This means that it is understood very differently by different people. You should not be promoting these myths about open source software.

I will skip over your "Secondly" and "Thirdly" paras because I have bigger fish to fry and this comment is already too long.

Are either of these statements useful? Remember, this article is pointing out the advantages of open source software over proprietary software and the differences between them.

Taking the first statement, well, proprietary software also promotes competition. Have a look at the competition between Microsoft, Lotus, Borland et al, over spreadsheets and word processors for a simple example, or IBM, Microsoft, Apple etc, over Operating Systems. So nothing different there. No advantage there.

The second statement is indefensible. Competition does not promote quality nor innovation - to the exclusion of promoting their opposites. You could make a very strong argument for the opposite cases. e.g. "Ship it now, before they do!" or "We need something like that, they're pushing it, why aren't we?". Same stuff happens in the proprietay world.

Sure, quality and innovation can be used as measures of a Company and it's products within the software world but competition is not the driver of them. If it is then you have a poor Company.

The drivers of quality and innovation are people. You and me. Others? Sure, but it starts with you and me.

Unlike Microsoft, Apple is not just a software company because they make their own devices, so they are a hardware company as well which makes them propriety and Apple locks their software down not letting OEMs make iOS & MacOS devices

To me, freeware and Open Source are the same, as they are both free, but I know they're different because the developers are different (a single group/person vs a community of developers).

There a problem with developers surviving solely on donations, and that is when there isn't enough or there isn't any donations. One of my favorite open source programs I used to use was call Synergy. When i started using it, it had a number of bugs, almost causing me to stop using it, but there were workarounds and beta fixes. This was when the developers accepted donations and the program was free. Now, they're charging for it and I don't know if any of the bugs are fixed. This wasn't the reason for not using it anymore, as I had no use for it. I'll admit I never made any donations.

That's a big problem with a lot of open source projects. Unless it's completely fueled by passion, the truth is that developers have to put food on the table, and that usually means giving up the open source project for something that does make money (or making the project itself paid). :(